


Serendipitous, By Design

by MelWriter



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Everyone Is Gay, Gokudera hooks up w/ everyone, M/M, Mukuro is a cheat, TBH I just want to know if this will do better here than on FF.net
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28431906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelWriter/pseuds/MelWriter
Summary: "If it's not Serendipitous, then it's by design." A sudden twist of Fate had Hayato moving to a new city, wherein he finds the love of his life and ruins any chance he had with him in just a few short words. Or did he? Main is 8059, but there are so many others, it's... well. Hayato is kind of a slut, so....
Relationships: Gokudera Hayato/Sawada Tsunayoshi, Gokudera Hayato/Yamamoto Takeshi, Sawada Tsunayoshi & Yamamoto Takeshi
Comments: 22
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! This is the first fic I've transferred over from FF, and it's really just to see if it'll do better here than it did there. Please let me know what you think!

The transfer was so fast, Hayato’s head was still reeling as he set his bag down in his new apartment for the next year. Literally, just yesterday morning he had been told he was going to be moved to a smaller branch in a smaller town nearly across the country. An 8-hour drive, in good traffic and weather. At the same time, he had also been handed the keys to his new apartment, the keys to his new car, and a promotion. His sister, whose couch he had been crashing on for the past week, was ecstatic that he was leaving her house and helped him pack with a fervour. 

On the one hand, this could not have happened at a better time. He had just gotten out of a bad relationship that ended with him being temporarily homeless – the reason he had been crashing on his sister’s couch – and he did need to get away from Mukuro. The bastard had invited his second boyfriend in to live in HAYATO’S apartment, without prior knowledge that anyone other than he was dating Mukuro, let alone was moving into his apartment. 

Needless to say that the ensuing fight ended their relationship. On all three accounts, because apparently Hibari, the other guy, hadn’t known about Hayato either, and was also just as affronted by the fact that Mukuro thought he could get away with being in an open relationship without consent from the other two participants. Now that wasn’t to say that Hayato had anything against anyone in an open relationship, but at least have the decency of talking about it first with your partner, let them know what you’re feeling and that you want to see someone else as well as you. Consent was still a thing, wasn’t it? 

With a sigh that held all his frustrations, Hayato walked over to the kitchen of his new apartment, pulling open the door of the fridge with perhaps a bit too much force. It was alright though; apparently, whoever had decorated his new home had forgotten to stock the kitchen, and that included more than just the fridge Hayato found as he started irritatingly opening all the cupboards to find them all so very empty. No spices, no coffee, not even any plates or bowls or cutlery. 

This was the ‘On the other hand’ to Hayato’s situation. He hated moving. Especially when that meant needing to buy himself new things. With another heavy sigh-turned-groan, he turned back to the door and left to go find a restaurant to eat at. Or maybe a bar to drown himself in. 

-

As it turned out, in towns this small, most restaurants close early on a Sunday. Who knew? Hayato almost sneered as he came close to just buying something from a convenience store, taking it ‘home’ and going to bed when he finally stumbled across a bar. It was nothing like the clubs Mukuro would often bring him to, and that alone had Hayato stepping in to take a seat at the bar.

“What can I get for you?” the bartender asked as he came around. Blond hair, blue eyes and sucking on a lollypop, he was a lanky man with a look of perpetual boredom on his handsome face. Hayato tried to force a small smile for him.

“Yeah, is your kitchen still open?” 

With a cocked eyebrow the man turned around and leaned back, almost in Hayato’s space, to check the clock on the overhanging wall. The clock was hanging in a way that made Hayato look up almost vertically just to see it, it was no wonder the man had to lean so much to see it too. 

“Hmmm, yeah. For another 20 minutes, give or take. Want a menu?” The man stood straight again and reached for a menu before Hayato could even get a response in, and he let a small, real smile fall to his lips as he took it. 

“Thank you. Mind if I start with a Rum and Coke?” Hayato asked as he opened the menu, not looking at the man and thus missing the wink sent his way. 

“Sure thing.”

The food turned out better than he had expected, but he also thought that might have had something to do with the amount of alcohol he consumed. Hayato knew he was tipsy before the food arrived, and he had another three rounds of shots while he ate; he was easily the drunkest he had ever been. He was so drunk he was leaning on the arm of some stranger who had come in halfway through his meal and joined him at the bar. He let the man chat him up, buy him a few more drinks. Let the man take him home. 

Let the man take him to bed.

-

The next morning Hayato woke up in a haze of pain and self-hate. Honestly, this was how he and Mukuro started out, why would he do this again? A wave of nausea hit his stomach hard, but Hayato sat up through it, looking around the room and trying to gather his wits. He couldn’t see the guy he had spent the night with, but he could hear the water running. A shower, then? 

An image flashed behind his eyelids, a man with tan skin, dark eyes and black hair, with a killer body moving over his own last night. Hot hands and even hotter lips caressed his body in his memory and Hayato shook his head; he must have had way more than he thought. There was no way he could have taken someone that hot to bed when Hayato himself was sure he was a mess. Not even a hot mess, just a mess. He swayed as he threw his legs off the side of the bed and started looking around for his clothes. 

The morning light coming in from the open window was more than enough to see by, and he located his clothes easily. Getting to them and getting them on would be the problem. He was most of the way into his pants when the shower cut off and a man stepped out of the bathroom, stopping Hayato’s heart cold. 

Holy… fuck…

He looked like a sex god, he was so hot. Steam from the man’s shower rolled off his skin, and that towel around his waist left very little to the imagination and was causing a very… hard problem for Hayato to think past. The man had started with a joyed smile on his face when he caught sight of Hayato, but slowly, that smile turned to a cocky smirk that Hayato liked just as much, if not more. The man cocked his hips to the side ever so slightly and started toward Hayato in a prowl the likes of which the silver-haired business man had only ever seen in one other ether real human. 

Rokudo Mukuro. 

For a moment, really just a split second, Mukuro was the one walking towards him, not this sex god of a stranger. Mukuro’s smirk, Mukuro’s eyes, Mukuro’s hips, Mukuro’s swagger. And that split second was all he needed to turn him off completely. The hurt was still too new, and Hayato couldn’t stop the horrible thought that he wouldn’t be enough for this stranger too. Just like Mukuro, this stranger would want more than Hayato could ever be able to offer him. 

Hayato turned away from the temptation walking slowly toward him and grabbed his shirt off the floor. With his eyes still closed he heaved a sigh, listening to the stranger stop cold.

“No.” He said as firmly as he was able. His voice still shook, but he ignored it. 

“No?” The word was whispered, but Hayato still heard it, and dear god, the sound of his voice almost made Hayato want to forget that he didn’t want another round of sex. “What’s wrong? Was I too much last night?” 

‘No, you’re so fucking perfect that there has to be something wrong with you, and I don’t want my heart to hurt again when I find out what.’ “I don’t fucking know, I can’t remember shit. Look,” He turned around and stared directly into the other man’s deep black eyes, so very different from Mukuro’s heterochromatic dark blue and bright red. 

“I’m new in town,” he continued, “but it can’t be so small that we’ll run into each other over and over again. I don’t know your name, and if you’ve told me I don’t remember it. We’re strangers, let’s keep it that way.” With that, Hayato turned a cold shoulder to the other man, finished gathering his things and left. He didn’t quite catch what the other man said just before the door closed, but it had sounded broken. 

-

He was so glad he had been given a week’s grace before he started working at the new branch. It took him nearly two hours of pointless wandering around to even find his new apartment building and as he took in his surroundings in daylight, he realized he had essentially walked two fucking hours to go three blocks away! Literally, just down the street from his apartment building was that hot stranger’s place. Hayato hadn’t lied about the fact that he couldn’t for the life of him remember the guy's name, if he had been given it at all, but for fuck’s sake, he had hoped he wasn’t lying about running into the other guy again. 

Honestly, thinking about the guy was terrible for his mental health. All he wanted to do was find him again, drop to his knees and beg for another round of mind-blowing sex. Maybe suck him then and there – 

…

See? Terrible for his health. 

With a sigh, Hayato unlocked his apartment door and strode inside for a change of clothes before he went shopping for all the things his new kitchen needed. He paused at the bathroom and thought about a shower, and images of the stranger stepping up to him flashed in front of his eyes. He shook his head with a firm ‘no’ and got changed, tossing his dirty clothes into a hamper. 

Three hours later had him in line to buy all the things he could think of and praying to anything that might hear him to make thoughts of the stranger just leave him alone.

-

For Hayato, the following week was a blur of boredom and rushing to unpack before he started work Monday. He managed to get his favourite suit in to the dry cleaners the Thursday and pick it up Friday, which was awesome… until he noticed that the cleaners ruined it! It was a fucking Armani suit! How the fuck did they get Bleach of all things on the ass of his pants?! 

Growling helped a little, taking his anger out on the young boy at the counter (who likely had nothing to do with anything concerning his suit) helped a little, but what really helped was that they paid him for damages. He couldn’t get to the tailors until the following Monday, but that was fine. At least he could get this shit fixed. He huffed his way into a sushi shop and sat at a bar stool, his head in his hands.

“What would you like today, sir?”

“I want to deal with someone that isn’t incompetent.” He said into the bar top in front of him. “And I’m hoping that’s you. One of your specials to go.” He finally looked up as the man laughed cheerily and got to work, and Hayato could hardly believe what he was seeing – it was like the man was an older version of his sex-god stranger from a few nights ago! Same handsome features, same smile, same body movements, hell even his voice was similar. Maybe Hot Guy grew up here? Maybe this was his dad? 

Huh… it really was a small town. 

-

It wasn’t that this suit was bad per se, it was just not his Armani. Not his first choice. Not his favourite. And, most importantly, not what he wanted to start his first day at work in. Hayato tried to hold back a sigh, but it escaped his lips before he could really attempt to stop it. His new boss, Sawada Tsunayoshi, looked over his shoulder as he guided Hayato to his new desk for the following… year. 

“Are you alright, Gokudera-san?” 

His voice startled the other, taller man into blinking up at him stupidly. “Uh, Yeah… Just… Not yet adjusted to this new town, you know?” he lied smoothly, a fake smile on his lips and his hand coming up to rub at the back of his head. Sawada screwed his lips up and turned around completely, worry creasing his eyebrow. 

“Was a week not enough time? If you need to, you can take another day off… come back tomorrow? I think I can put a hold on your paperwork until then…”

“Ahh, no! No, don’t worry about that. Actually…” Hayato sighed. “This is going to sound really trivial, but I wanted to wear a particular suit today, but the cleaners in this town kind of fu- er… messed up and ruined it. I can get it fixed, but not until later today.” Hayato looked up sheepishly and found his new boss’s expression not one of disappointment, but rather one of understanding. 

“Ah, you went to Shimon Dry Cleaning, didn’t you?” It was a rhetorical statement and Hayato nodded anyway. 

“Yeah, h-how did you…?” 

“I’ve been there. The workers are all a little weird, and sometimes a little klutzy, but they always own up to their mistakes. They tell you to bill them for the repairs?”

Hayato huffed a small laugh. “Yeah, they did. They told me to go to Haru’s Fix It, I think?” 

A smile lit up on Sawada’s face. “Oh! I love Haru’s work. A little advice though, she can be a little eccentric sometimes.”

“A little eccentric? How so?” Sawada started walking again, and Hayato followed behind him. 

“Well, when she gets excited over a new idea or over a nice suit, as yours seems to be if you wanted to wear it so bad, then she starts speaking in the third person. A habit that was never corrected from when she was little.” Sawada explained as he stopped by an empty desk. 

“Uh huh.” Hayato replied, if only to respond with something. This ‘Haru’ sounded almost as weird as the people at the dry cleaners. Maybe that was why the people at the dry cleaners told him to go to her? Probably. 

“Well, this is your desk. I have to get back to work, but just over this short wall is your guide for the week. You’ll be his immediate manager, though. His name is Yamamoto Takeshi, and you can ask him anything, within reason, and I’m sure he’ll be happy to answer. I’ll just be down the hall if you need anything he can’t help with. Good luck on your first day, Gokudera-san!” 

And with that, Sawada turned and left him standing there, the name ‘Yamamoto Takeshi’ echoing in his head. Where had he heard it before? Where… 

A memory of hot hands and an even hotter mouth caressing his body flashed behind his eyes just as he heard his doom give a small laugh just behind him. (Apparently, he had been told the sexy stranger’s name.)

“Haha! We meet again!” 

‘Fuuuuuuuuck.’ Hayato wasn’t ready. He couldn’t take seeing him again, not when he hadn’t been able to take his mind off the other man since that night literally a week ago. His heart couldn’t take the chance of falling for another man that would just play him again, as all men that were that hot usually did. So then, what were his options? Thinking as quickly as he could, Hayato settled on the one that would hurt him the least and possibly make the other man back down.

As coolly as he could Hayato turned to the man hanging over the short wall with a small, business-like smile and said as pleasantly as possible, 

“Meet again? I don’t believe we’ve met before.” Hayato didn’t think he could regret something that fast before. He watched as that beautiful face and bright smile fell as he realized Hayato’s meaning – that he had been forgotten. That he hadn’t made enough of a connection to remain in Hayato’s mind.

Yamamoto shifted his eyes to the side and he coughed awkwardly into his fist. “Oh… I must have been mistaken.” But then his melancholy was replaced with a smile so fake it looked painful. “I’m Yamamoto Takeshi.” He stuck out his hand, despite the weird angle it put his shoulder in, and Hayato took in hesitantly. “You can call me Takeshi.” he said as he shook Hayato’s hand. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Yamamoto. I’m Gokudera.” 

-

The entirety of the following week had been excruciatingly hard for Hayato, for several reasons. All of them were related to Yamamoto in some way. 

No, seriously.

He had tried to find his way to Haru’s Fix It and had somehow gotten lost and had bumped into Yamamoto along the way. (It wasn’t that he was directionally challenged, this town was just so damn confusing.) Yamamoto ‘just happened to be going the same way’ and all but insisted he help Hayato find the elusive shop. 

Which was not elusive. At all. (With the fucking neon sign and glitter: how the fuck did he miss it? He blamed Yamamoto.) 

Then, the tall man guided him in with a hand on the small of his back (And that in and of itself made Hayato feel like he would willingly sell his soul for that hand to just go a little lower…) and introduced him to Haru. Now Haru… perhaps blaming his entire week on Yamamoto alone was a bit much, because Haru was a bit much. 

And so very annoying. 

The moment she laid eyes on him she started squealing. Not because of his looks (Which happened from time to time. He wasn’t vein, but he knew he could look damn good when he tried) and not because of his companions’ looks either (Which was odd because one look at the man and Hayato was fighting down a massive school-girl like swoon). She wasn’t even squealing over the fact that Yamamoto still had a hand on Hayato’s lower back. (Because, and he is quoting here, “Some chicks dig that.”) No, she was squealing because of his Armani suit. 

(Admittedly, when he first saw it, he too felt like squealing but…)

“Ahhh! Haru has always wanted to work on an Armani suit!” She screamed, much like a banshee, as she took his suit right out of his hands. 

“O-oi! Don’t you need to-”

“Nope! Enma-kun told Haru you were coming, and that they would take care of the bill, Gokudera-san! To be honest, I had thought you would come earlier today, but oh well! I’ll just get started then.” 

“Yeah, I had a job to start, and I wanted to wear that suit. By the way when-”

“Haru doesn’t think it’ll take me much longer than a few hours to fix.” She finally quieted down long enough to actually look the suit pants over. “Ohhh, maybe not. Is that bleach? What on earth did you do?”

“What do you mean ‘What did I do’? I brought it to that fucking place and-”

“There is no need to be rude! No way would they put bleach of all things on such a lovely suit!” 

“Excuse me?! You think I would do that to my own prized possession?!” Hayato yelled back, finally snapping enough to actually raise his volume. They set in to a firm glare, heatedly not taking their eyes off of each other. 

“OK! I think that’s enough! Come on, Gokudera, I’ll treat you to a late dinner and Haru-chan can fix your lovely suit, ok? Haha…” Yamamoto interrupted, bravely stepping between them. Haru harrumphed and turned her shoulder to the men, stomping one heel childishly against the wood of her shop. 

“You are such a child!”

“Hahi! And you are such a bas-”

“OK! That’s it!” Yamamoto must have snapped as well, but it also must have been a rarity, since Haru didn’t even react to Hayato getting his feathers all riled up, but she flinched and took three whole steps back when Yamamoto opened his mouth. Yamamoto whirled on her. 

“Haru! Go to the back and start on his suit. I’ll call you later to talk this out.” He turned back to Hayato. “And I know I literally just “Met” you, but you can’t seriously be having this kind of conversation! You are a 26-year-old man! Act like it.” 

And with that, the man Hayato was now sure was the new love of his life just ditched him. 

(Why was this his life?)

-

“H-hey, Gokudera-san?” 

Hayato blinked up at the timid voice of his boss and watched as the man seemed to shrivel in on himself. Blushing a deep red, Sawada Tsunayoshi wouldn’t look Hayato in the eye, and stood there by the side of his desk, hands behind his back and his one foot scuffing the floor. He no longer looked like the confident 26-year-old man he had five days ago when they met – he looked like a teenage boy with very little confidence about to ask out his crush.

It was oddly adorable and Hayato fully turned to watch how this would play out. Sawada wasn’t his usual type, but if the man did ask him out, he might take him up on it. The blushing just made him so cute. 

“Uh… I- uhm…” he turned away and tisked to himself, lips moving without sound as if he was berating himself for his stutter. Hayato smiled a crooked grin and leaned back, hands folded in his lap. Well, if nothing else, this would prove entertaining. Suddenly, Sawada screwed his eyes shut, turned to Hayato, hands clenched at his side and he stuttered out, 

“A-a-are you doing anything for dinner? W-w-w-would you like to go out with me?”

Hayato was so glad he stayed late. There were maybe 3 others in the office with them, but it was such a wide office space – it took up most of the 7th floor of the building – and Sawada spoke so quietly, Hayato doubted that the others had heard them. It was totally different from what he was used to. 

Mukuro did Grand Romantic Gestures, but he was never cute. Hell, the only guys he dated did romantic gestures, but they never did anything ‘cute’. Sawada looked like he could be cute even doing Grand Romantic Gestures. And yes, that has to be capitalized, because they were always that Grand. 

With a wide smile, Hayato leaned on his desk, chin resting on his fist, and waited for his boss to crack. Sawada squirmed, his eyes still closed, and the man waited a full minute before he looked to see the smile on Hayato’s face. Sawada must have read it as a polite way to turn him down, as his face fell, his shoulders slumped, and he turned away from Hayato. 

“I see… I’m sorry for wasting your time, Gokudera-san.”

“Now wait a minute.” Hayato said as he reached foreword and pulled on the other man’s sleeve. “I’m sorry, I was teasing you a little.” Sawada turned back to the man with an actual, honest-to-god pout and Hayato had genuinely never seen anything so cute in his life. He let a real smile unfold on his lips as he stood. 

“You’re adorable,” he said slyly, taking a small step into Sawada’s space. He lifted one of the slighter man’s hands in his as he continued. “I would love to go to dinner with you. If you’ll have me.” He added a wink at the end of his sentence, just to see how deep that red blush would go, and if maybe the other man would pass out. Sawada was almost a half foot shorter, and the height difference caused Hayato to tower over the slighter man – and it gave him the best angle to watch those deep brown eyes widen and that dark red blush deepen. 

He stepped back a moment to let the other man cool down and breathe. “I just need to finish up this report, shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes. Why don’t you grab a seat?” Still very red-faced, Sawada nodded and almost robotically pulled a chair from another person’s desk to sit at the end of Hayato’s desk. 

True to his word, 10 minutes later and Hayato was pulling his suit jacket from the little peg on the wall next to his chair, hitting the send button and closing his web browser. 

“Sorry about that, I didn’t know I was going to be asked out to dinner.” Hayato said casually as he pushed the other’s chair away for him. 

“Thank you.” Sawada said softly, “And I’m sorry about sneaking up on you with that.” 

“Nah, don’t worry about it. It was a nice surprise.” He led the way out of the building and waited for Sawada to take control of the night from there. After all, Hayato was still new in town. He didn’t know all the best places in town to eat. It turned out that that didn’t matter much, because Sawada took him to the very bar Hayato stumbled into his first night in Namimori. He found himself chuckling slightly at that thought. 

“What?” Sawada asked softly, looking up at Hayato from under his eye lashes. 

“It’s nothing, really. Just that this is the first place I came to eat when I got here.” 

“Oh… did you want to go somewhere else?” 

Yamamoto and his beautiful eyes, firm hands and hot body flashed in Hayato’s mind and he suddenly felt like he was cheating on the man. Which was absurd, they hardly knew each other, and they only had one tryst. It wasn’t like they were dating or anything. They weren’t an ‘item’. Why would he feel like he was cheating of all things? 

He needed to forget the man. Soon.

He looked down at Sawada, who was still waiting on an answer, and Hayato stumbled upon a chance to get his mind off of Yamamoto. For good. (Hopefully.)

“No, this place is fine. I like it here. You come often?” 

As it turned out, seducing your boss really wasn’t that hard.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A warning for this chapter. There is implied previous non-con that the victim brushes away simply because it had happened a while before. There's also some bullying and mean words thrown around. I don't want to offend anyone, or trigger any past issues for anyone who reads this. I love you all blindly, and please stay safe!

Stalking the man that you love isn’t really stalking when you’re just trying to keep him safe, right? 

“Right.” Yamamoto Takeshi said in quiet resolve as he sat at the overcrowded bar, on a lonely (for him) Friday night, watching the way Gokudera Hayato, the man he was sure was his soul mate, laughed and clung close to their shared boss, Sawada Tsunayoshi. 

… ok, maybe keeping tabs on a man you’ve only had sex with once and calling it true love was a little extreme, but Takeshi wasn’t known for half measures. To make matters worse, the man Gokudera was with was a long-time best friend of his, Tsuna. And Tsuna looked… so happy, sitting and laughing and talking with Gokudera. And it was so hard to watch because he had a feeling Gokudera was only in it for the sex, but the last and only person Tsuna had slept with had destroyed him inside and out in just 3 short months. 

But he couldn’t intervene. This wasn’t something he could interrupt. This was solely between the two consenting adults across the bar, flirting with each other harder than Gokudera had with Takeshi the first night they met.

(And if he were totally honest, that was the part that bugged him most.) 

He sat and glared down at his beer, his first and only of the night, an attempt to not have to wake up with a hangover the next morning. He really didn’t want a repeat of the last time he was at this bar… Ok, maybe with Gokudera he did, but not the hangover part. That part sucked. 

With a sigh, Yamamoto gulped down the rest of his drink and stood to leave, glancing over at his love and his best friend one more time – 

And caught the tail end of a fight. 

-

Everything was going rather well with Sawada – Tsuna, the man had said to call him Tsuna – when this dude walked up to them and started bad mouthing the smaller man. 

“Hey, Dame-Tsuna, what the fuck are you doing here? I thought you had done the world a favour and killed yourself by now.” An irritating sneer and a dominating stance told Hayato all he needed to know about this man. An asshole with a superiority complex. But instead of insulting the man back, or even defending himself, Tsuna just… shrunk in on himself, again, and mumbled a small reply of,

“Hi… Kensuke.” 

Which only served to irritate the man further, and Kensuke glared. “It’s sempai to you. I know we fucked around or whatever for a while back in High school but I’m still your better. Remember that.” 

Tsuna huffed and that adorable pout was back, but there was an irritated edge to it Hayato hadn’t seen before. Still adorable, but Hayato kinda liked it. “I run a company now, Kensuke, and you don’t. I don’t see how you’re my ‘better’.” This made the man laugh, catching the attention of the people around them.

“You only got the position because your grandpa owns the company, not because you worked for it! Don’t act like you actually earned it like everyone else!” 

Tsuna slid off his stool and glared up at Kensuke. “I did too! I worked-”

“The fuck you did! You’re too fucking stupid!” He grabbed at the front of Tsuna’s blazer with the last word and drew back his fist. The moment he did, Hayato struck. 

There was no warning (There never was when Hayato got scrappy). He grabbed the man’s wrist attached to Tsuna and the moment the guy turned to him, Hayato slammed his fist into the guy’s nose. Kensuke dropped to the ground as he let Tsuna go, and the slighter man fell against Hayato’s back. The room went silent as Hayato stood over the man, and everyone heard the quiet words spoken.

“You ever talk bad about Tsuna again, you ever even think of hurting him again, and I’ll break more than just your nose, you hear me?” 

The man scowled up at them, and Hayato took a threatening step forward. “I asked you a question. Do you hear me?” 

“Yes! I hear you! Fuck…” with that, the man stood and sulked his way out of the bar. 

Hayato watched him leave and turned back to Tsuna, keeping close and all but trapping him in a hug as he leaned against the bar. “You ok?” he asked softly. 

Tsuna numbly nodded into the man’s chest, his blush so hot Hayato could feel it through his shirt. “Y-you didn’t have to do that…” 

“And what kind of date would I be if I didn’t?” Hayato ran a comforting hand up and down Tsuna’s back. Tsuna shrugged, his hands tightening on Hayato’s sides. 

“A perfectly reasonable one.” Hayato laughed as he leaned back to look into Tsuna’s eyes. 

“Well then. It’s a good thing that I’ve not been known to be perfectly reasonable when it comes to dates.” He said with a wink. He learned then that his winks seemed to weaken the other man, as Tsuna’s blush deepened and the man swooned into his chest. With a smile, Hayato took this chance to take his wallet from his back pocket and wave down the blond barkeep. 

“Oh, no.” The man said as he came close. “For protecting Tsu-chan here, tonight’s on the house.” 

“Tsu-chan?” 

“Spanner!” Tsuna cried, turning around as much as he could in Hayato’s arms. “Why would you call me that now of all times!” 

The blond barkeep, Spanner, just laughed. “Because you do that every time! It’s so cute!” and he turned back to the rest of his customers. 

Hayato was holding in his laughter, right up until Tsuna turned that adorable pout his way again and he broke, letting out a long laugh. Tsuna started mumbling about ‘everyone being mean’ and Hayato lost it, holding Tsuna closer and smiling as the man squeaked. 

“He’s right about one thing though.” Hayato said as he pulled away from Tsuna.

“Who and about what?” 

“Spanner, and about your reactions being cute.” 

With a smile, Hayato decided to kiss the responding pout away, his lips grazing softly over Tsuna’s for a moment before he pulled back. They stared into each other’s eyes for a small while before Tsuna broke the contact, closing his eyes and leaning up and in for another, deeper kiss. Hayato responded in kind, meeting the smaller man half way. His arms wrapped around Tsuna’s waist and one arm pushed against the bar-top so it wasn’t digging into Tsuna’s back, the other hand lay against the back of his neck, just below his hair. Tsuna’s arms came up and around Hayato’s neck and held on like his life depended on it. 

Kissing Tsuna felt somehow familiar, like coming home for the first time in years, but Hayato couldn’t stop the thought that Yamamoto kissed better. With Tsuna, it was all languid passion, rather than a battle of tongues – and Hayato has always liked it a little rough. He pulled back when they were sufficiently out of breath and looked Tsuna in the eye as he smiled. 

“Come on, I’ll walk you home.” 

-

Takeshi’s hands shook as he held his shi-ai, his father, though aged, still looked at him as if he were a child. And Takeshi knew it was probably because he was acting like one – slightly panicked and angered just because the guy he liked was making out with his best friend. They were probably having sex by now… Gokudera’s words floated passed his ears ‘Come on, I’ll walk you home’ and Takeshi tripped himself up, flailing a moment before his father’s shi-ai smacked lightly across his back and sent the younger Yamamoto to the floor. 

“What has gotten into you? I know it’s not the beer, you’re not a light weight.” Yamamoto Tsuyoshi looked down at his son and tilted his head, trying to figure the young man out.

“I’m just fine, dad… again?” He asked as he got up, rolling his shoulder before he leveled his stance again. Tsuyoshi shook his head.

“Not until you tell me what happened, son. Your mind isn’t in the right place – you could hurt us both like that. I’m not as spry as I used to be.” 

Takeshi sighed and shook his body out of the stance. “It’s nothing – I’m just being childish.” 

“All the more reason to talk about it, I suppose.” Tsuyoshi nodded and turned to the door. “Come on, I’ll make you some hot cocoa.” 

“Ugh, I’m not a little kid. Not everything is solved with hot cocoa, dad!” 

Tsuyoshi turned to his son with a raised eyebrow, “So, you don’t want any hot cocoa?” 

Takeshi weighed the pros and cons and the pros won out. “…yes, I want hot cocoa.” He mumbled. With a laugh, his dad continued down the hallway, pausing only to put the shi-ai back up on the wall. Takeshi followed his dad, pausing to do the same before they walked in silence to the kitchen. 

“So? What boy has got your head all tangled in with your heart?” 

“How do you-?”

“I’m your father, I know when my son is having boy problems.”

“… I’ve never told you I’m gay.”

“Yes, but I’ve known you were gay since you were 5 years old. You went to preschool and kissed every boy in your class, but not the girls because they were ‘icky’. You were 7 when you came home crying because you kissed another boy that you liked, and he punched you instead.” 

There was a long stretch of silence as Takeshi processed this information, and Tsuyoshi got to work making his son’s favourite drink when he was upset. Tsuyoshi set a mug of steaming cocoa in front of Takeshi’s nose and asked quietly. 

“So, what’s his name?” 

“Hayato. Gokudera Hayato.” 

Getting the whole story out after just saying his name was ridiculously easy – or maybe it was because it was his dad he was talking to – either way, it was almost like the words just spilled from his mouth. And Takeshi felt all the more relieved because of it.

-

“So, who were you kissing when you kissed me?” 

Hayato jolted back, snapping his head up as he looked back at Tsuna. They were most of the way to Tsuna’s place, or so he said, when Tsuna posed the quiet question. 

“Wh-what are you talking about?” 

Tsuna’s small smile faded completely and he turned to face Hayato, pausing in the middle of the street. “You were physically kissing me, but I wasn’t the one you were thinking about.” 

“I don’t-”

“Please don’t lie. This already hurts.” 

They stood for a while, and Hayato sighed, slumping his shoulders as he pulled his pack of smokes from his pocket. 

“I do like you, Tsuna.” He responded, just as quiet as Tsuna’s question. “Believe me, if I had any control on my heart right now, I would give it to you.” 

“Who has it instead?” Hayato couldn’t face his boss just then, hearing the pain was too much – he couldn’t see it too. 

“Yamamoto.” 

Another moment of silence hit them hard, and Tsuna leaned against the wall just off to their side. Hayato joined him, smoke in hand. He offered a stick, Tsuna rejected, and the silence continued. 

“W-why did you say yes to a date with me if you wanted someone else?” Tsuna’s voice sounded shaky. Hayato couldn’t answer right away, so he just shrugged his shoulders and continued smoking. “Is it because I’m your boss? You thought you couldn’t say no?” Tsuna’s voice almost broke and Hayato pushed off the wall to stand in front of Tsuna. 

“No. Look, things are complicated for me right now. I… I got out of a bad relationship just before I got here, and I didn’t want to start anything if I knew it would hurt me again… but I can’t stop thinking about him. Everything about him…”

Hayato’s voice shook with tears he hadn’t even shed for Mukuro. “I’m so sorry, Tsuna.” 

“Come on. My house isn’t far from here – it would be nice to continue this conversation indoors at this temperature.” Tsuna’s eyes were sad, but his smile was back, and Hayato nodded, resolving to be deserving of that smile in the months to come. 

-

“So, would you like something to drink? I have different kinds of tea.” Tsuna breathed next to Hayato’s shoulder. 

“Sure… I’ll take a glass of water.” He answered back, just as quietly. He stood awkwardly, just inside the door despite being told he could grab a seat on the couch in the living room just off to the side of the front door. He lingered there another moment while Tsuna milled around in the kitchen. With a sigh, he turned back to the door, intending on leaving – because what was there to even talk about? – when Tsuna walked back into the hallway. 

“You’re leaving?” his voice was soft, the question sad. Hayato nodded.

“I mean, like I said, I like you. I really do. I think you’re adorable, but… I can’t do this with you.” He paused and turned to face Tsuna for the first time since he admitted he liked Yamamoto, met the other’s eyes for the first time since the bar. “I only slept with him once, but this feels like I’m cheating on him, or something-”

“Wait, you slept with him? Like, you actually had sex with him?” Tsuna’s eyes were blown wide, his voice laden with shock. Hayato cocked an eye brow.

“Uhm… yes?” 

“Oh my god. Oh my – you don’t get it… Yamamoto is gay, yes, but he is, or was a virgin!” Tsuna said as if the news was astronomical. And with the way it was blowing Hayato’s mind, it kinda was.

“Virgin?! What! No, no way! He was so good in bed though! There is no way he was a virgin!” 

“Oh my god, I have to sit down.” Tsuna said, all but ignoring Hayato at this point. 

“And how do you even know that, anyway?” Hayato asked skeptically as he followed Tsuna into his living room. Tsuna looked up like he just remembered Hayato was there. 

“Um, Yamamoto and I have been friends since I think… middle school? It’s been a while.” 

“Wow… so, why would this be such a big thing? He’s smoking hot, like, drop dead gorgeous. Why wouldn’t he want to have some fun with other hot people?” Hayato asked as he sat next to Tsuna. He took the glass from the other man’s shaky grasp and took a sip. He grimaced when the cold hit his teeth, but mentally shrugged it off. The water could warm up, this conversation was far too important.

“Uh… this gets a little personal, on my end, but… the first person I ever slept with… it wasn’t really, shall we say, consensual? I um… I couldn’t get him off of me.” Tsuna’s eyes seemed to zone out for a moment, and Hayato scooted a little closer, settling a hand on the other’s knee, and startling the man out of his reprieve. There was an apology on Hayato’s lips, one of empathy, when Tsuna’s bright smile interrupted him.

“But, that’s all in the past now. He can’t hurt me now. But back to the main point – Yamamoto swore that he wouldn’t have sex unless he knew it was with ‘the one’ after he found out what happened to me. He also swore that if he ever found out who hurt me, he would kill them.” Tsuna giggled, like he wasn’t talking about rape, and then pre-meditated murder, and Hayato cocked an eyebrow because that may or may not have disturbed him just a little.

Just a little.

“So, Yamamoto having sex with me… it meant that he thought that I was…” Hayato trailed off, his blush so hot he thought his face was melting. Tsuna nodded encouragingly, despite Hayato not even looking his way anymore. 

“You have his heart, as much as he has yours.” Tsuna’s breath was soft against his ear, and Hayato looked back at the slighter man. 

“I… I still can’t do anything. With him.” He muttered, and maybe it was the alcohol that was still floating in his system from the drinks with dinner, but when Tsuna asked a soft, “Why?” Hayato couldn’t hold anything back. 

He spoke of Mukuro, of their years dating, of his betrayal, of the heartache caused by it, and the way he had moved, despite hating moving, just to get out of being in the same city as him. By the end of his rant, he was crying lightly, tears pooling in his eyes and sliding gently down his cheeks. Tsuna was leaning against his arm, a silent but comforting statue. 

“I had no idea…” Tsuna breathed, his voice shaky and pained. Hayato couldn’t turn to face him, still couldn’t bear to face the other’s tears. 

“Well, I didn’t know about your past, so…” Hayato said, his voice just as shaky as Tsuna’s, and the slighter man huffed a laugh into his shoulder. Hayato pulled Tsuna into his chest as a question he wasn’t going to ask jumped passed his lips. 

“So, Tsuna, why did you ask me out?” Tsuna squeaked as his flush heated Hayato’s chest. There was a long pause before Tsuna mumbled, 

“I’m going to sound like such a stalker.” 

Hayato laughed, but said nothing, waiting on the other man to continue. It took Tsuna a moment, but he gathered up enough courage to get out the words.

“Do you remember going to that really big conference in Tokyo about 4 months ago?” Hayato hummed as he thought back.

“Uh… 4 months ago… Yeah, there was that one thing in Tokyo. I had to leave early, because Mukuro was being a diva and wanted my attention.”

“Oh, that was why you left…” Tsuna mumbled. Hayato nodded. 

“Wait, you were there?” Hayato asked as he looked down. Tsuna blushed harder if that was even possible. 

“Yeah, I mean, I saw you from across the venue, and later that day I asked Grandpa about you. He said he would introduce us the next day, but then you left… then Grandpa said he was going to transfer you into my branch, and I told him not to if you didn’t want to, but then you were here and…” Tsuna shifted into Hayato’s side further and mumbled into his shirt. “See? Stalker alert.” Hayato laughed and tightened his grip on the slighter man. 

“If it’s not serendipitous, then it is by design.” Hayato said quietly in his mother tongue, Italian, and Tsuna looked up at him. 

“What was that?” Hayato looked down again, watching Tsuna’s brown eyes fill with wonder, and smiled as he tilted his head back again, staring up at the ceiling. After a moment, he repeated the words in Japanese.

“It basically means that sometimes, even if things seem like fate, there’s actually someone pulling strings and making things happen.” He looked down at Tsuna again and watched his eyes fall to the floor with a look of quiet guilt in them. He nudged the man into looking back up at him. “It’s not always a bad thing though. Sometimes it’s for the best if someone makes something unexpected happen for you.” 

“Like me asking about you lead to my grandpa sending you to meet Yamamoto?” 

Hayato nodded. 

“I was actually thinking about how you asked me out, and how I wish I could fall for you. You deserve someone who can. I just don’t think it’s me.” 

They sat and stewed in contemplative silence for a good minute as Tsuna steeled his resolve for something he wanted but wasn’t always sure he would ever get. (If anything went wrong, he could always blame the alcohol.)

“Ha- Hayato…-san. I want to be selfish for a moment and ask you to do something for me.” He looked up into Hayato’s questioning eyes and back peddled. “O-only if you want to though. I would never, ever force anyone to do anything they don’t want to, after what I went through. I’ve just never been with anyone else…” He looked down turned contemplative again for a second. “Well, there was that nice guy a couple months ago, but there was nothing sexual about us. He just bought me coffee once in a while.” Tsuna shook his head and moved away from Hayato’s chest, just enough to sit up, but not enough to fully separate them.

“I’m rambling, sorry.” 

Hayato laughed and turned a little toward Tsuna. He already had a feeling he knew what it was, but it wouldn’t be the first time tonight Tsuna through him for a loop in his adorable way. “No, don’t worry. It’s cute. What would you like to ask me to do?” 

Tsuna looked down with another blush and settled his hands on Hayato’s chest. “I want you… to pretend, of you can.”

“Pretend?” See? A loop. Was it a kink thing, maybe? Call Tsuna Daddy? 

Tsuna nodded. “For just… just tonight. Can you pretend that you like me enough… to have sex with me?” Tsuna looked up from under his eyelashes and Hayato read all the desperation in his eyes, the fear of never being loved and loneliness from his years without the touch of another person deep in his heart. For a moment that confused him because weren’t they basically the same age? 

'I’ve just never been with anyone else…'

'Well, there was that nice guy but there was nothing sexual about us.'

Oh.

Oh…

“Tsuna…” 

As gently as he could, Hayato pulled the smaller man into his lap, settling him in close and folding his arms around a thin waist. He lay his lips across Tsuna’s and the brunette opened his lips easily, letting Hayato take control of the kiss. Hayato kept the kiss soft, a dance rather than a battle for dominance, and pulled apart to look Tsuna in the eyes again, a small smile on his lips. Tsuna was smiling a dopey little grin like the thought that Hayato was kissing him was the greatest thing ever.

“I want you to understand something first. For me.” Hayato whispered the words across Tsuna’s face and leaned back a little more to give the other man room to breathe. The words seemed to sober Tsuna from his stupor, and the man leaned back a little too, his eyes downcast again.

“I know. It’s just tonight, and never again, right?” Hayato brought up a hand to Tsuna’s chin and pulled his eyes up and shook his head when their eyes meet. 

“No, Tsuna. I want you to understand that for you, I don’t have to pretend to like you enough. I already do.” Tsuna’s eyes widened and watered at the same time, before the man launched himself at Hayato across his lap, wrapped his arms around Hayato’s neck and kissed the man like he would die if he didn’t. Desperation slammed into him as they kissed the way Hayato liked and they made quick work of their shirts. Tsuna pulled Hayato into his bedroom, Hayato only pausing to chuck his shoes off at the front door.

Hayato lay Tsuna out on his bed, and made the other man realize that the ‘sex’ he was forced to have those years ago was nothing compared to having a real lover. Someone who actually cared if Tsuna enjoyed everything, made sure Tsuna knew he could be loved and truly wanted. 

He had lied though. Hayato hadn’t meant to, when he said he didn’t have to pretend for Tsuna, but the moment they were naked, laying there in the heat of it, Hayato realized he wanted Yamamoto. That he still wanted only Yamamoto. The man’s touch and smell and taste and the sounds he made… he nearly spoke Yamamoto’s name into the quiet of Tsuna’s bedroom, and he made sure to say Tsuna’s every time he thought of Yamamoto rather than the exquisite young man beneath him. 

Tsuna lost count of how many times his name was said, whispered, called, or pleaded. 

-

The following morning was an awkward affair. 

Hayato woke up alone, to begin with. He also woke up to merry singing coming from the kitchen. He sat up with guilt heavy in his heart and got dressed slowly before he made his way to the kitchen, where the happy singing was replaced with humming, and the smell of pancakes and bacon filled the air. Hayato knew he had been caught though, not his coming into the kitchen, he had made sure to make that as obvious as possible to avoid startling Tsuna, but he knew Tsuna knew Hayato was thinking of someone else last night. 

Tsuna’s back tensed when Hayato made himself known, and the smaller man offered a small, forced smile. 

“Good morning, Hayato.” Tsuna said tightly as he set a coffee down in front of the man. 

“Good morning. This is… quite the spread of food here.” And there was a lot of food, a lot more that Hayato thought the two of them could eat in the morning. Pancakes and bacon were there, but there was also cereal (hot and cold), and waffles, as well as all the toppings that could possibly go on pancakes and waffles – from fresh fruit to liquid chocolate. Tsuna sat across from him with his own cup of coffee and Hayato reached for the cream. 

“It’s a habit I picked up from my mom.” Tsuna said lightly as Hayato filled his plate. It all looked so good, he wanted a little of everything. Hayato looked up from the strawberries he was placing artfully onto his waffles. 

“You always make this much for breakfast? How are you not fat?” That managed to pull a smile from Tsuna, and the younger man looked down and away. 

“What I meant was that when I’m stressed to my breaking point, I cook. And cook, and cook, and cook.” He glanced over to the stove as Hayato froze, his hand hovering over the bowl of banana slices. “But anyway.” Tsuna turned sombre here as he looked back at the man across his table. 

Suddenly, Hayato remembered that this was his boss he had just been using as a secondary heart-ache band-aid. 

“I think you and I should stop all… fraternizing. It’s obvious that, although I like you, you don’t feel the same for me. But you do love someone else. And that isn’t healthy for either of us.” Tsuna’s voice… no. Sawada’s voice was sombre, his expression even more so. And all Hayato could do was nod in response as he stuffed his face. 

The food didn’t just look good. It tasted divine. 

“Besides.” Hayato said as soon as he swallowed his food. “We would never work.” He tried very hard to ignore the hurt on Sawada’s face as he continued. “You make the best god-damn food I’ve ever eaten, and you made so much.” He looked up with a pout he hoped mirrored Sawada’s at least a little as he set his fork down. “I stress eat! I wouldn’t make it to 40 before my first heart attack!” 

For a moment, Sawada looked stunned, then confused with an eyebrow raised, before he broke into a burst of merry laughter so filled with admiration and love, Hayato couldn’t help but join in. 

-

Hayato left Sawada’s house sometime around 10 in the morning, just after he helped the other man clean up from breakfast. It was weird, walking into his apartment, knowing all the shit he had caused with Sawada, and probably Yamamoto too, now, but instead of worrying about it, he went for a shower. It was Saturday, no work, but his Armani suit should be almost done. He didn’t know why she was closed last weekend (something about a friends’ wedding?) but she was usually open on Saturdays, so he changed into casual clothes. 

Dark denim skinny jeans, short sleeve white shirt and a dark grey cardigan. He matched it all with multiple chains hanging from his neck and wrist, and a quote (from Bianchi) ‘Shit ton’ of rings. Some fingers doubled on them. Hayato really didn’t care, and he merely grabbed his phone, wallet and keys as he shoved his feet into shoes. 

Getting to Haru’s Fix-It a second time was a lot easier than the first, and Hayato walked into the glitter-covered monstrosity… and stumbled into a scene he would likely never forget. 

“Hibari Fucking Kyoya?!”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, Talkative and kinda drunk Hibari Kyoya? Sure... Why not?

Haru sighed as she nursed her third coffee of the morning. The Advil was finally starting to kick in and her hangover was just starting to dissipate. Kyoko, her best friend of more than a decade, had called her up last night crying about her boyfriend, again and of course, Haru had to go to the other girl’s house with a bottle of wine, and listen to the girl’s problems. (It would all be easier if Kyoko just broke up with Mochida. He was a sleaze bag, and Haru was 90% sure he was a closeted gay.) And Kyoko had a bottle already opened and a second beside her. Between the two of them, they polished off all three bottles. Haru was fairing better than Kyoko, but she also had a store to run.

That said, Haru’s Fix It was supposed to open at 9 am on Saturday. Haru finally got to her shop around 10 and opened it to see her first customer of the day – a crotchety old woman, complaining about something Haru had no control over. After 30 minutes of listening to her banter about how Haru had made her wait on purpose, and how Haru’s store was going to be closed down (Not that she could actually do something like that), the old woman huffed away (without buying anything) and Haru poured her second cup of liquid humanity and grace. 

Just… why?

Not ten minutes after the old woman left, an old man came in. Haru tried not to think that he was going to be the same as the woman, but the thought was there. It turned out better than previously feared, however, as he was just looking for some crafts he could do with his 6-year-old grandson later that day. 

Haru poured her third cup. 

It was almost noon before her next customer, which was fine with her, really, if only that customer wasn’t someone from her nightmares of days gone past.

Pitch black hair, pale moonlight skin, sleek gray eyes and a stride that told of the man’s confidence in himself; Hibari Kyoya walked into Haru’s Fix It like a man on a mission. The man of grace and danger himself stalked right up to her and handed her a brown paper bag, and said,

“I would like this re-embroidered.” 

For a whole minute, Haru’s brain shut down. 

Rebooting in; 

3…

2…

1…

“Of course. Let’s have a look at it.” Haru walked over to the main counter in a trance, pulling out a dark red satin scarf with some exquisite gold embroidery all throughout it. Golden birds in flight from one end of the scarf to the other, with the initials H.K. on one end and R.M. on the other. It was done expertly, beautifully, and with a care Haru admired. 

Well, she should admire her own work. The only thing was, she didn’t do this job for Hibari Kyoya, but instead for a man with blue hair and a creepy smirk. 

And she had made three upon request, one dark red with gold thread and birds in flight, one deep blue with silver thread and exploding stars, and one deep purple with snow-white thread for the initials and little hearts in pink. The other initials were…

“Hibari Fucking Kyoya?” 

Haru snapped to attention and looked to the door, watching as Gokudera Hayato, the horrible man from a few days before, walked in. The young woman got a front-row seat in watching the following dispute. 

-

Kyoya had been having a nice day. Really. It was his first week back in his home town, relaxing in the fear that he could seep into the very bones of the people in the street just by walking by them. He looked into the box of his hastily packed belongings and reached in to pull out a scarf Mukuro had given him for their first Christmas together. At the time it was a romantic gesture that Kyoya hadn’t known what to do with. He had fallen in love with the man, the only person he had ever had feelings for in his life, and those feelings had only solidified with this scarf. 

The “I love you” that had been whispered in his ear later that night, the words that still haunted Kyoya to this day, had made breaking up with the man all the harder. It was just about to get cold in Namimori, snow was normal in the coming months, and he would need a scarf soon. And this one was soft, warm, and the colour of blood. Despite who it came from it was still perfect. 

He ran his fingers across the ‘R.M.’ stitched in and he held back the feelings of utter hate that well up in him. Hate for the man who gave it to him and hate for himself; for not seeing Mukuro’s true colours, for not throwing away this reminder of pain, for being unable to throw it away even now, and worst of all, for still loving the man who hurt him so deeply. 

Kyoya ripped away from that line of thinking, standing and changing out of his evening yukata and into something he could walk around in. And no, there were no tears in his eyes. Hibari’s don’t do ‘crying’. If he remembered correctly, there was a store that had opened while he was away, one that could change the initials on the scarf to something that was less of a painful reminder, to one that would make it a simple scarf for winter. 

With a sigh, Kyoya grabbed the scarf and folded it gently, placed it in a bag and walked out. It was time he learned to move on. 

He walked into Haru’s Fix It at precisely 11:53 in the morning and strolled up to the young woman who owned the business. Her name was… Miura Haru, though it took him a second to remember it. She had only joined Namimori high school halfway through her first year, right before he had moved for university, so he hadn’t had time to get acquainted with her – though he really had no need, as she wasn’t a disturbance to the rest of his students. 

“I need this re-embroidered.” He told her sternly as he put the bag with his scarf in her hands. She just looked at him in awe and fear for a moment before a pleasantly small business smile stretched across her lips. There was still fear in her eyes though. Kyoya couldn’t deny that he liked it. 

Everyone should fear him. 

“Of course,” she said, her voice shaking. Kyoya resisted the urge to smirk at her. “Let’s have a look at it.” As if in a trance, the young herbivore walked over to the main counter and took out the scarf that held all of Kyoya’s heart. She looked at it for a minute, confusion crossing her face and she tilted her head and cocked an eyebrow, when suddenly Kyoya heard his name, with a rude word thrown in the middle, and turned to look at the man who had stolen his happiness. 

“Gokudera Hayato.” He seethed, baring his teeth. “What are you doing here?” The pathetic excuse of a human sneered back at him.

“I’m here to get my suit. What the fuck are you doing here?”

Kyoya growled. “I meant, what are you doing in my Namimori?”

The growl was mimicked for a whole minute, and just as Kyoya was about to reach for his Tonfa, the other man sighed and took a step back, physically forcing himself to calm down. “I was moved here by my company a few weeks ago. If I want my contract to hold, however, I have to stay. I’m sorry, I didn’t know this was your hometown.” He lifted his hands in surrender as he stepped in closer. Gokudera walked toward them, hands still in the air, and came to a sudden halt, eyes blown wide, as he stared at the scarf on the counter. He gulped as he lowered his hands, eyes softening and never leaving the fabric, and he halfway reached for it.

“He gave you one too, huh?” 

The quiet words felt like a slap to the face. 

“You too?” Kyoya hated the slight tremble to his voice, but he couldn’t completely stop it. He was sure the young woman behind the counter heard it, it was so loud. Gokudera nodded. 

“He gave me a blue one, with silver for my initials. The bastard wasn’t just cheating on us, he was getting cheap on the gifts too.” There was a tight moment of silence as the two men tried to process this information. 

“He gave me mine on our first Christmas together.” Kyoya said quietly. “It was the first time he said ‘I love you’ to me… I can’t believe I believed him.” 

“Me too… I can’t believe I stayed with him as long as I did. He gave me mine the Christmas before last.” 

“Yeah, Cheating bastards are all the same. Haru hopes they all burn in hell.” Kyoya blinked up at Gokudera, who blinked back at him, and they turned to the young woman behind the counter they had forgotten was even there. She blinked at them.

“Sorry. Don’t mind Haru, she just has the wine hangover of the century. She doesn’t even know what she’s saying anymore.” The young woman stretched out over the countertop, arms forward. After a moment, she looked up at Gokudera. “By the way, I need to remake your pants altogether, and to do that, I need to do your measurements. I get the right colour fabric in on… Tuesday I think? So, if you could come back in Wednesday or Thursday, then I should have them all done by the week after next.” 

“Ugh, seriously?” Gokudera said as he pushed the heels of his palms into his eyes. 

“I mean, Haru could take the measurements from your current pants, but then they may not be right.” Haru pouted at the tall man, and Kyoya was almost out of patience. He was there to commission something from the same woman fixing a suit for the bastard that stole Mukuro from him. 

“No… that’s not it.” The heathen sighed and looked up at Kyoya a minute and turned away. “I’ll come back in on Wednesday.” He started toward the door.

“Oh, hey, wait!” the young woman exclaimed, and Kyoya was really close to just grabbing his scarf and walking out, when she continued. “I have a question for you both.” 

With a cocked eyebrow the menace returned to the counter and Kyoya stifled a sigh. 

“Do you guys know who the third scarf went to?” 

Kyoya rocked back a step and Gokudera seemed to not understand. 

“What third scarf?” 

“Well, Haru was commissioned to do three scarves for the man R.M. One was red, one was blue, and the other was purple. The purple one only had his initials, and the letter ‘N.’ on the other end.” 

“There was…”

“Someone else…” 

-

The relief Hayato felt wasn’t what he was expecting, but it lightened his heart so much. There was someone else… not just Hayato or this other guy, but someone else too. And that knowledge somehow made things better, even though he knew it really shouldn’t. 

“Someone else…” Hayato whispered, his breathing coming a little quicker. So, it wasn’t him – Hayato wasn’t the reason the relationship failed. It was all Mukuro! All this time, Hayato had been blaming himself, thinking somewhere deep in his heart, that the failure of this 6-year relationship was his fault, but it wasn’t! 

“Hi-Hibari-sama?” Hayato looked down at the young and somehow less annoying clerk and followed her line of sight up to the black-haired man. He looked… just so sad. Like the information was the opposite to Hayato’s exuberant relief. The man seemed to snap back to attention a moment after his name was called and he scowled deeper than before. 

“Never mind.” He growled, grabbing his scarf and throwing it in the bag he brought it in. “You.” He turned to Hayato with a deep glare and continued. “Do you still have your scarf?” 

“Uh, no? I burned it along with a lot of the stuff he gave me.” Hayato wasn’t sure where this was going, but he had an idea – he could see the pain that Hayato himself had felt for the past month and a half. 

“Good idea.” The man nodded, as if coming to a decision himself. He grabbed Hayato’s hand as he started his way out the door. “You’ll help me burn this stupid cloth.” 

It took a whole minute for Kyoya to really understand that he had technically kidnapped the other man, but he also came to the realization that he didn’t care. This man, Gokudera Hayato, seemed to be able to get over the heart ache Kyoya couldn’t get past; and maybe, just maybe, Kyoya needed a little help. 

And maybe, just maybe, Gokudera Hayato could be that help.

-

“You’ll help me burn this stupid cloth.” 

The words had repeated in his head over and over as Hayato was dragged, at one point literally, toward an undisclosed location. The silver-haired business man looked around him, trying to place where he was, but this fucking city was a maze, and he knew that if this guy was going to burn him along with the scarf, Hayato may not make it out alive. But then again, Hayato would make sure this guy wouldn’t either. 

… probably. 

(His grip was surprisingly strong, and the man hadn’t let go of Hayato’s hand in the last 15 minutes. It was… it was really weird.) 

His bright green eyes blew wide when they rounded a corner and started toward a house, though the word seemed to do the building a greave injustice. It was a fucking mansion, traditional Japanese style, all one floor, but the compound must have taken most, if not the whole block! And if Hayato was right about where he was, then this mansion was built in the center of the town.

… or was the town built around the mansion? 

Given the age the building appeared to be from the outside, it was highly likely. 

“Come inside and remove your shoes. We have guest slippers… somewhere… I think.” 

“You think?” 

“I don’t have guests over very often.” 

“From your personality that doesn’t surprise me.” 

Hayato got a sneer and the hand leading him pulled away. Kyoya turned back to the main door and opened it, allowing Hayato to enter first. Hayato was taking his shoes off as instructed (though he honestly had no idea why) when a small, older woman called out to greet them.

“Welcome home, Hibari-sama. Shall I get a pair of slippers for your guest?” Hayato couldn’t see the relief in Kyoya’s face, but he did catch the small release of tension in the older males’ shoulders. 

“Yes.” He said curtly with a sharp nod. The woman was gone for more than two minutes of awkward silence and came back with… pink… things. 

“I’m sorry, sir, these were all I could find.” The woman looked saddened and sheepish, and the bunny ears on the pink atrocities flopped over in a pathetic way. 

Kyoya couldn’t hold back his laugh, though the sound was something of a cross between a chock and a cough. 

Gokudera glared at both the man and the slippers. “Can I just go with my socks?” 

“Sure.” Kyoya said, sparing the man the humiliation. “Shimazaki.” He addressed the older woman. “We are going to use the fire pit in the garden. Please prepare a bottle of sake for us.” Kyoya glanced over his shoulder at the other man. “Make that two bottles.” 

“Of course sir.” The woman vanished with a practiced ease, taking the pink atrocities with her, and Kyoya started to walk down the opposite hallway. Hayato thought back to the word ‘garden’ and snagged his shoes, just in case. 

They sat in relative silence for nearly 20 minutes, a bottle of sake each. They both drank from the bottle rather than make use of the Sake cups Shimazaki had lay out for them, ‘like heathens’ Kyoya had joked. Hayato simply didn’t care, though he was starting to care that he was here instead of his apartment on his day off, watching the way Kyoya fingered his red scarf. 

That being said, Hayato felt he knew all too well what the older man was going through. 

“How long were you two together?” Hayato found himself asking as he stared at the fire blazing not three feet from them. 

“From the sounds of it, not as long as you two were.” Kyoya muttered back. Hayato shrugged and took another swig of his sake. 

“Doesn’t make it hurt any less.” Kyoya nodded slowly, agreeing and allowing Hayato to know the pain he was in, though he suspected Hayato already knew. 

“We were together for 6 years.” Hayato said after another moment of silence, watching Kyoya cringe in the corner of his eye. “I met him when my sister took me out to a dance club. It was my… I wanna say second time? Yeah, my second time out to a club of any kind, and altogether my fourth time getting drunk. I was just old enough to drink, and I wanted to enjoy it. I got out to the dance floor and I saw him across the room and all that cheesy bull shit. We started dancing, he took me back to a hotel and we fucked. I don’t think we even said anything more than ‘Do you have a condom?’” Hayato paused to laugh at the mixed look of confusion and disgust on the other man’s face. 

“Any way, that was how we started out. About half a year later I graduated and got myself an apartment near the school, but it was still really early in our relationship, so I didn’t out right ask him to move in with me; I just handed him a key and told him to show his face every once in a while. About a year later I did ask him to move in – he already had so much of his shit mixed in with mine, so the move wasn’t really hard for him. My name was still on everything, just me and not him, but he was helping with rent and other expenses, so I thought it was all good. 

“Then fast track four and a half years later, he brings you into our home, calls you his boyfriend when I had thought we were exclusive, and told me that you were moving in to my place, with us.” 

They both took another contemplative silence as Shimazaki came back with more sake, taking back the empty bottles without a word to either man. 

“I called him a prostitute.” 

The words were sudden, and it shocked a startled laugh out of Hayato. “What?!”

Kyoya chuckled. “When we met. I called him a prostitute and he propositioned me. I will gladly admit that I like fighting perhaps a bit too much, so when he propositioned me, I pulled out my tonfa and aimed to bash his skull in. The fight was interrupted by my subordinates when they had called an ambulance once the first bit of blood was drawn. 

“The second time we met was much like the first, in that we fought, and blood was drawn, but this time it was ended when he called me cute and kissed me out of the blue – so I knocked him out as harshly as I could. In my younger years, had he done that to me, I likely would have disemboweled him on the spot. I only knocked him out as I saw the clean-up and body removal as too much of a hassle, though had I known what I do now, I definitely would have killed him then. 

“We met and fought, time and again, until maybe three months later he wasn’t fighting at his usual best. I asked him what was wrong and warned him that if he didn’t get his act together, I really was going to kill him this time. He looked up at me with the saddest eyes I had ever seen, a truly pathetic look on him, because he was always smiling.” He glanced at a riveted Hayato, “You know the smile, like he has something planned out perfectly, and you wont like the end result?”

“Yeah, I fucking hated that smile.” 

“Yes, he wore that every time we fought, and it just irked me every time I saw it, but not seeing it? It made everything worse somehow. He looked all sad and pensive and I snarled at him until I realized he wasn’t going to continue to fight me. I asked him again what was going on and he said that he could fight it anymore. He came close and asked me not to push him away… and he kissed me.” Kyoya paused to look down at the scarf in his hand and take a sip of sake with the other. 

“At first, I thought it was some weird form of attack, and I pushed against him as hard as I could, but when I finally managed to put some space between us, I saw he… he was crying. He was crying and he asked me to let him kiss me more. He called me by name – and before then it was always ‘Skylark’. I should have punched him in the nose. I should have just pushed him away harder and left him… but I kissed him back and he took me to a nearby hotel. 

“It was my first-time having sex, and I was thoroughly disturbed by the feeling of it. It both hurt and felt pleasurable, and I didn’t like it at all. I didn’t know where to put my hands and he was too close, constantly, and I hated every minute of it, even the parts that felt relatively good. I told him of all this and he told me that ‘it feels better with practice’… so I left and told him that if he ever came close to me again, if he ever touched me again, I really would kill him, and I would make it the most torturous I was capable. 

“I thought I was done with him after that, really I did, but the following three months were hell… I hated myself for how I left him, and I – I missed him. His banter, his wit, his strength, even that infuriating little smile of his.” He paused again to pull his legs up onto his seat and brought the scarf to his face to smell the lingering sent of the other man, though Kyoya thought it might have been an illusion, seeing as the man had never actually worn the scarf. “I still miss him, and all of those things about him.” He whispered. He seemed to come back to his senses as his eyes snapped back to Hayato sitting beside him – though the silver haired man wasn’t actually looking his way. 

“But anyway,” Kyoya continued, bringing his legs back down to sit properly on the seat again. “I found him after those long three months, walking out of an ally way, away from some woman I hadn’t seen before, or since, now that I think of it. I watched him kiss her cheek and wave her goodbye, and for a second, I had thought I was too late. That he was taken, and I couldn’t have him. But he called her his sister when I asked about her, and it was all very awkward between us. I eventually broke and told him of the thoughts I was having, of wanting to either punch him in the face, or pull him in close and kiss him… so he laughed at me and kissed me and asked me out on a date afterward. We began a rocky two-year relationship that probably had more fighting and a lot less sex than most other couples, and I thought that that suited us just fine…

“Until the apartment above mine caught fire, and mine got drenched in the ensuing fight against it. So I asked him if I could stay with him for a few days, just until my place was fixed up, and he brought me back to his place, wherein I met you.” 

They sat and watched the fire for a while longer, taking in each other’s stories and letting the alcohol work it’s magic on their blood streams. 

“I wonder if he ever meant even half the shit he told us about love an’ shit.” Hayato slurred.

“Probably not… the words were likely a pretty bow on a prettier and so very empty package.” Kyoya slurred back, his hands almost numb around the scarf and the bottle.

Hayato nodded. “That’s the nicest way of saying ‘a nice-looking fuck wad’ I have ever heard.” He tipped his sake bottle at the other man without looking. 

“Thank you.” Kyoya tipped his bottle back, and they finished their bottles in silence once more as Kyoya tossed the scarf into the fire before his feet. 

“And may I never see him again.” 

“Amen.” 

-

Monday couldn’t come fast enough, and came too fast all at once for Hayato, as he was still fighting the last dregs of a hangover from his Saturday afternoon at Hibari Kyoya’s place. He was proud of himself though; he didn’t sleep with the man, so he was stepping up from acting like a complete slut on that front. He nearly collapsed into his seat at his desk, and lay with his head smushed against the key board for a moment until he heard Yamamoto Takeshi’s unrealistically chipper good morning thrown in his direction as the man passed his desk. 

“Good morning, Gokudera! Looks like you had a fun weekend, huh?” 

Hayato wanted to tell him where he could shove his chipper attitude but settled on a muttered ‘Bite me.’ The man laughed, and though it sounded almost painfully forced, Hayato couldn’t tear himself away from his headache long enough to look up at the man that he still somehow wanted to bed. 

It was nearly three hours later when his boss Sawada walked up to his desk and leaned his hip against it. Hayato looked up at the young man, the leader of many with the confidence to prove it and saw his rather sultry smirk. 

“Are you taking a lunch break soon, Hayato? Why don’t you join me in my office for it?” 

It was such a complete 180 from what had happened on Saturday morning that all Hayato could respond with was an eloquent, ‘Huh?’ But then Sawada slipped him a paper that simply read, ‘Play along like you and I are dating and come to my office. We need to talk.’ 

“Of course, Tsuna… how did you know I was just getting hungry, babe?” he grabbed his lunch as he hit ‘save’ on his work and stood to join the man already leading him away. Hayato glanced back at Yamamoto and was almost stunned to see the man almost growling at his desk, eyes closed, and mouth screwed up in a snarl. It was not a look he would ever associate with the almost omni-happy man. He felt a pressure on the inside of his elbow and looked down at Sawada, watching as the man placed a finger on his own lips to shush him and nodded back toward his office. Hayato was pulled away from Yamamoto, and he could feel eyes digging into his back as he walked away; or rather that glare was digging into the hold his boss still had on his elbow. 

Once they were alone in Sawada’s office, the man closed the blinds and sat Hayato down across from his desk. 

“So Takeshi came to my place Saturday evening and we had a fight regarding you.” Sawada said as he sat down, neatly folding one leg over the other. 

“…Ok?” 

“He seems to have convinced himself that there is no way he actually has feelings for you now that we have slept together, and I know that that isn’t true, just by seeing his reaction to my calling you in here – good idea calling me Babe, by the way, very convincing – and he threw around some names that I won’t bother you with that I really don’t appreciate. So as his best friend I’m going to get a way for the two of you to be together, but seeing as I’m mad at him, I want to be cruel while I do it. You in?” 

Honestly, Hayato probably should have said no, but at that very second, he was far too dumbfounded in that logic to say anything but, “Uhm… alright. What did you have in mind?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that is all that I have previously written. If these 3 chapters have a relatively good response, I'll continue to write it, but if not... I'll just delete it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all who liked, commented, bookmarked and/or gave Kudos. Without you all, I would not have finished this chapter!

‘ _Stalking_ ’ wasn’t quite the word Reborn would use to describe his actions, but it was the word his friends often threw around to explain to Reborn that maybe what he was doing wasn’t the sanest thing to do. Reborn’s favourite retort to that was that people did crazy things when they were in love, so there was no need to worry about him. Colonello responded by chocking on air and sputtering, because Reborn, the infamous Bachler with a long string of lovers of all genders, shapes and sizes, finally admitted to being in love.

Which, according to all their friends, was impossible, because Reborn could love no one, not even his own family. They all laughed like Reborn had told them the funniest of jokes when he admitted to being in love. Reborn responded by spiking their drinks with strong laxatives with only one bathroom in the café, and making them all pay for his double espresso.

And what were his actions that Colonello considered _‘stalking’_? Reborn may or may not have… quit his job at a firm that was just _this close_ to naming him partner and moved to another country just to be closer to the young man he had fallen so very completely for, making himself virtually jobless and living in a hotel until his savings ran dry and/or until he could secure himself a job in the same city as the lovely young man that had blinded Reborn with love.

It wasn’t his fault though – the young man was absolutely stunning. He was as brilliant as he was beautiful – and he had the audacity to think of himself as stupid and call himself useless – simply ridiculous! Yes, Sawada Tsunayoshi was certainly something else – an angel to Reborn’s bleak life of numbers and money.

Reborn was at his breaking point – he was considering turning to extremes just to get something exciting in his life. Though he wasn’t sure what kind of ‘extremes’ he was referring to. (Maybe cocaine, maybe heroin, maybe murder – who knew?) Either way, Tsunayoshi saved him. It was a bloody miracle he survived his own boredom. That demented version of boredom that led to his life turning around.

It all started when his boss and almost partner Luce had seen what was likely the worst case of a bored accountant she had ever seen in Reborn and had offered him a month long job across seas to Japan. Their accounting firm was the world’s best – they got calls and job offers all over the world, and everything was high end. Everything from the banks of Switzerland to small nations; anyone that needed their books reworked or ‘fixed’, then the Arcobaleno were the accountants called. Luce had started the company, but Reborn was the best – and he was getting so god damn bored of this bullshit.

Day in and day out; did these people know nothing about business?! Here he was, almost literally digging idiots out of their own financial graves, only for them to bury themselves again in a month’s time. And he couldn’t even tell how they were that stupid! Coming back to their main headquarters from the same idiot leader for the 8th time that year (and it was only _6 months_ into the fucking fiscal year) Reborn growled that he wanted a vacation.

And Luce delivered – sort of. A month ‘vacation’ in Japan… to get a small branch of a big business out of bankruptcy. There was something ‘wrong’ with the books, but the new owner/manager of the branch couldn’t ‘figure out what’. Reborn had a feeling he knew what was wrong – none of them had a fucking accountant on staff, and they were all too stupid to know how to actually work their own books.

He accepted the ‘vacation’ because he really did want to leave the company for a short while, and this job seemed easy, like maybe a day or two’s worth of work, and the rest of the time he could enjoy to himself. He got to the hotel, dropped his bags on the bed, immediately had a shower – a really long one – ordered some sushi via the hotel staff, and generally just dicked around for three days.

“If I don’t go to work and do something, _soon,_ I’m going to shoot myself.” He said out loud to no one in particular. The air around him seemed to agree, and that’s really how he knew he was going insane with boredom. He nodded to himself, took 3 Vicodin’s and swallowed the rest of his 4th Mickey of Vodka, and passed out.

(Yeah, he wasn’t kidding when he said it was getting bad. Murder was the next thing he didn’t want to try, but it was heavy on his mind. Homicide or suicide – who knew which? Not Reborn.)

Honestly, he doesn’t even remember texting Luce about letting the business owner know that he was going to be there sometime in the afternoon to get a bit of a start, and then start the real work the day after that, but he wakes up to a text letting him know that she had set up a preliminary meeting for 2 pm with the boss of the branch of the company, a Sawada Tsunayoshi. He grunted and looked at the time…

1:32 pm…

Reborn found his way stumbling into the branch of the company at 2:03 pm, hating that he hadn’t had the chance to have a real shower – though he did get to wash his face first before he changed into a clean suit and rushed to the building halfway across the (thankfully small) city. He took in a deep breath of air, controlled so as to not let on that he had ran there after drinking himself stupid the night before, and let it out in a sigh.

He had so little hopes for the coffee in this building. Or in Japan. It’s been less than a week, and Reborn misses his Italian espresso.

“Oh! Hello. Are you the accountant, Reborn-san?”

Reborn lifted his cold, dead eyes –

And saw an angel.

-

“Would you like some coffee? I just brewed some.” The angel offered with a flourish as they stepped into an office. It looked like the boss’s corner office, or a small conference room. There was a large desk covered in papers that seemed vaguely important, almost like the person was attempting to look them over all at the same time, and obviously (by the simple fact that they were still scattered) they hadn’t found what they wanted. Reborn dismissed them as belonging to the boss of this place – already deeming the man, Sawada Tsunayoshi, a messy idiot – and turned back to the brunette angel pouring him a coffee.

(For really just a split second, Reborn thought he was dead and in heaven. A beautiful young man was pouring him the liquid sanity he needed? Definitely an angel.)

Originally Reborn had mistaken the angel for a girl, the man was just so pretty and petite. But his angel had a distinctively male voice when he spoke. Honestly though, Reborn caught _maybe_ every other word spoken, a little preoccupied with the sway of the angels’ hips as he walked, so he completely missed whether or not the young heavenly being gave his name.

So now here they were, Reborn almost uncertain about what to do for the first time in his life – almost, because he was still the suave Italian man, a Bachler and a professional, with 2 PhD’s and a Masters in 3 different kinds of maths, and his Accountant’s papers from 12 different countries, Japan included. Reborn removed his suit jacket and laid it over the back of his chair and began a swagger over to his angel pouring his coffee.

“Would you like-” the angel froze as he turned to Reborn, coffee pot in one hand and creamer in the other, as the taller man closed in on him.

“I’ll take my coffee black.” He said as flirtatiously as possible, picking up his coffee and taking a sip while attempting to maintain eye contact. Attempting, because his angel was blushing – adorably, might he add, - while looking away and fumbling with his own mug. Not the best coffee he could admit, but better than he had been expecting, so Reborn was happy.

“S-s-s-so!” His angel stuttered and directed them towards the boss’s desk.

Now, if Reborn had been completely sober and not still a little sloshed from the night before, he would have made the connection between the brunette setting the coffee down on the cluttered desk and the boss he was supposed to meet, but as it was the man made a fool of himself for the first time in his entire life.

“So.” He smirked and leaned a hip on the desk. “How is it, working secretary for this,” he paused and leaned back to check out the nameplate, “Sawada Tsunayoshi? Is he good to you?”

His angel blinked at him before he smiled sheepishly, “I’m sorry. I guess I forgot to introduce myself? _I’m_ Sawada Tsunayoshi. It’s wonderful to meet you, Reborn-san.”

-

“…And that’s why I need you to come here to Japan and kill me, Luce.” The devil woman was laughing.

6 hours since Reborn completely destroyed all chances he might not have had in the first place with this beautiful brunette man, and the accountant was still embarrassed. And Luce was _still laughing_. True it had calmed down to bare chuckles in his ear, but Reborn still found the sound irritating.

“Would you stop laughing!”

“I’m – I’m sorry, Reborn, but never in my life would I have thought that you would stumble like that.”

“I didn’t ‘stumble’. I just…”

“Fell flat?” She offered and Reborn contemplated ditching Japan to go strangle the woman in person. Luce seemed to take the silence Reborn responded with as a change of subject. “So, have you figured out the problem with the accounts?”

Reborn sighed and straightened from his slouch to grab his notes. Embarrassingly, they were relatively sparce, having been so caught up in his failed attempt at flirting. (It was his first failure in such an endeavour, of course he was hung up on it.) “Hard to tell from just the preliminary reports, but the problem seems to be bad accounting from all over the branch, not just one department.”

“Deliberate, or just uninformed?”

“Again, still not sure. Might be longer than the few days of actual work I was hoping it would be, though.”

“Oh good!” Luce sounded suspiciously happy all of a sudden. “More time for you to try again with your little prince charming!”

“I hate you.” Reborn hung up with the sound of her laughter.

-

“So, I would like to begin the day with an apology.” Reborn said as he poured himself a cup from Sawada’s personal Coffee maker the man had implemented in his office.

“Oh? Uh… Ok. I’m sorry.” Tsuna said, looking up as he set the crème down on the counter.

Reborn set his mug down while keeping his grasp on it, shifted his weight and lifted his free hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Not… Not from you.”

Along with a verbal answer, Sawada tilted his head to one side, his hair bouncing, and an eyebrow quirked. Reborn tried not to laugh from how puppy-like the adorable action was. “Then who? Has someone in my company bothered you? I might not be able to make them apologize, but I can talk to them –”

“No, no, _I_ need to apologize.” He said with a chuckle before sobering and letting go of his coffee. He straightened his spine, rightened his tie and smoothed out his suit vest. “My behaviour yesterday wasn’t very professional – unfortunately I was a little drunk still from the night before and, well, I’m sorry if I offended you yesterday.”

It took a moment for Sawada to formulate a response, and Reborn tried to read the younger man’s emotions.

The first was easy enough – confusion, almost like he couldn’t understand the words spoken. Then vague understanding closely followed by more confusion – like he got the words but had no idea why Reborn would apologize. This one was accompanied by another head tilt in the opposite direction, as if he could literally get another angle on Reborn’s phrase.

Then Sawada straightened his spine, his posture shifting from nervous to professional, but Reborn couldn’t quite read his emotions. “Oh, um… no, you didn’t offend me, at all. But, um, thank you for your honesty?” He sounded uncertain, as if he genuinely didn’t understand why Reborn would apologize, or that he felt the need to apologize at all. Reborn smiled, biting the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from out right laughing at the brunette angel.

“Right, so when do you get the full financial reports from the different departments?” Reborn said, easily changing the subject for Sawada to follow. Sawada looked up at him gratefully from under his eyelashes, and once more, Reborn was certain he was in love as he followed the smaller man to the (ever so _slightly_ ) less messy desk.

-

They ended up talking business for close to 8 hours, interrupted only once when someone came in, Tsuna’s (the man insisted Reborn call him by his first name, and who was Reborn to refuse?) actual assistant Shoichi reminded Tsuna of his lunch meeting with his Grandfather over Telecom. Reborn was given a list of take out options, but he decided on a light lunch sandwich at a nearby café.

5 hours of shop talk, 2 and a half hours after lunch, and a 45 minute break between. And Reborn still couldn’t figure out what was happening. It was a shame upon his name as a world class Accountant, but he couldn’t figure it out – though that in itself meant that someone was deliberately cooking the books, and not just really shady accounting. Add to the fact that he couldn’t see any real pattern to it meant that who ever was hedging funds from so many different departments had done so for so long that they had built up a way to hide what they were doing. Reborn sighed.

“I’ll come back tomorrow at nine. Do you think you can have your people bring in reports for the past 7 years?”

“7 years? Really? Do you… Do you really think someone has been… embezzling, this whole time?” Reborn looked up from the paperwork in front of him, taking in how the man looked a mix of angry and betrayed.

“You have an idea who would have done this?” he asked lowly, leaning across the small coffee table between them. They had moved to the twin small couches in the office set between the desk and the coffee counter, being more comfortable then just sitting on chairs contemplating the short reports for only half the fiscal year.

“… I might have an idea, but I would like to focus on the information on hand before I come to any conclusions. Please.” Tsuna sounded a lot smaller than he had all day, his beautiful brown eyes staring hard at the page in his hand, his grip tight enough to crinkle the page. Reborn had a feeling the younger man knew exactly who was responsible, but was hoping he was wrong.

Reborn could understand that, he could respect that hell out of that. So rather than call him out, he nodded his head and said instead, “Would you like to grab a coffee with me tomorrow morning, before we begin?”

Tsuna hummed non-committedly and gestured with his free hand to his coffee maker. Reborn pressed his lips into a thin line and accepted that as a denial. “Ok, then… I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Have a good evening, Reborn-san.” Tsuna sounded distracted, his eyes still hadn’t left the sheet of paper. Reborn felt… well, he was new to the feeling, but he thought it might have been ‘awkward’, sitting there and staring at Tsuna despite having been dismissed for a minute longer before he actually stood. His movement seemed to bring Tsuna back to the present, if only just long enough for Tsuna to automatically smile up at the tall Italian and wish him, again, a good evening.

Reborn relayed the day’s discovery to Luce, leaving out how he just had a feeling Tsuna knew who was behind the loss of revenue for the past years. “Aaaand?” she goaded once all the money talk was over. “How did things go with your little prince charming? I’m bored here all on my own; give me some juicy gossip, _please_.”

“I asked him out for coffee tomorrow morning before we go back to work.” He answered as simply as possible.

“Oh!” she sounded so happy for him – it kind of hurt when he followed with:

“Yeah, he turned me down.”

“Oh!... Wait, what?”

“Yeah.” He hung up before he could hear her half-hearted encouragements that he knew the woman was likely to try to give him.

-

The following month was a lot of the same as the first day Reborn was there. Tsuna could only spare a bit of time most days, still having a business to run, while Reborn worked in the background, having taken over most of Tsuna’s office, if only because the slighter man made a good cup of coffee.

Over the course of that month, Reborn accomplished only three of his goals for being in Japan.

Success one: the Vongola corp. branch that Tsuna ran was no longer hemorrhaging money like a split artery – because there was, in fact, bad bookkeeping as well as someone funnelling money from the corporate account into a personal one. Reborn had the two in-house bookkeepers fired, mainly because they were doing really sub-par work. (And the older of the two was using a filing technique from the Meijin era, Reborn could _swear_.) The 80-year-old man was kicked from his position with a full retirement package whereas the girl, barely out of high school and who was being trained in all the wrong things by the old man (though nothing immoral, she was his great-granddaughter, just financially incorrect) so she was introduced to a nearby college and given a partial scholarship (which was more than Reborn had suggested) to a bookkeeping course with a conditional job offer after she completed her 2 years there.

Success two: Reborn figured out who was embezzling from the branch, and dear god it was so depressing, Reborn was hesitant to call it a win at all.

Sawada Iemitsu, Tsuna’s dad and the former branch owner stole nearly a Billion yen and ran off, leaving his wife and son to pick up the pieces. Until Reborn had made the discovery, Tsuna had thought his dad had just left his mother for another woman. This seemed to make the brunette laugh in bitter anger – an interesting thing to see, for sure, if slightly disturbing. The man was long gone, the likelihood of getting the money back was minimal at best. Having that conversation with Tsuna and his grandfather was one thing, but watching his angel wipe a stray tear from his eye as he told his mother over the phone what had happened was something Reborn isn’t likely to forget any time soon.

Success three: a coffee date. He actually got a fair number of coffee dates – though he was reluctant to actually call them _dates_ because it seemed Tsuna didn’t see them as dates. And if _Tsuna_ didn’t see them as dates, could Reborn really consider it a success?

They had gone out four different times, three to a morning coffee with a light breakfast and once to lunch, but every time they were out, Tsuna acted like they were nothing more than work colleges – and maybe that was Reborn trying to reject the notion that Tsuna wasn’t gay, or that he just had no interest in Reborn as anything more than a friend, but…

Well, Reborn really just wasn’t good with rejection or verbalizing anything that couldn’t be said with his body.

And that lead to the one goal that failed. Getting Tsuna to see himself as anything remotely worth the time Reborn was spending on him.

Every damn day, whenever Reborn would take a break to ask out the brunette, or even just to strike up a chat, Tsuna would act like Reborn was so far above him (in the man’s own god damn office!) that taking a break would hinder Reborn somehow. Tsuna would say the most self-deprecating things, like how he was ‘too stupid to understand what was on the report’ when the report was written so poorly, even Reborn had a problem understanding it! Which was why they came to the conclusion that they had to let go of the previous bookkeeper.

Literally, every time he has asked Tsuna out, Tsuna said things like ‘I’m sure you have better things to do than to spend your time with me.’ And it was irritating! Reborn decided to go back to Luce a week early, so his last day was close, and well…

Reborn was never one to quit. “Are you sure I can’t buy you dinner? I leave soon, and I really like you. I want to take you out, on a real date. Will you let me?” Reborn sighed as he opened his eyes and nodded to himself in the mirror. Yes, that was how he would ask. Not for coffee – a clear dinner date. A real invitation for a _date_. This way if Tsuna turned him down, it would be clear that he was rejecting Reborn, not anything else.

If.

Reborn sneered and turned away to adjust his tie, regarding his room with a keen eye. His bags were packed perfectly the day before, all but the one suit he was wearing, and the other he was having cleaned for his flight. His flight took off at 4 in the afternoon the next day, with plenty of time to spend with Tsuna, should the date go _really_ well.

He walked into the building, greeted the red-haired secretary Shoichi, and strolled into Tsuna’s office like he owned it –

It was empty.

That was fine – Reborn’s dramatic entrance could become his surprise visit, nothing to worry about. Until Shoichi’s mumbling actually became intelligible.

“Sawada isn’t here!" the young man finally got out. "He’s gone to Tokyo for an emergency meeting with his grandfather. He’ll be back tomorrow, though.” Reborn pinched the bridge of his nose.

“What time tomorrow?” Maybe he could still manage a date and catch his flight?

“Uhm… maybe 7pm? The meeting is over the loss of revenue and what to do about Sawada’s predecessor… it’s with one of their friends in the police force and a lawyer.”

“Which is about all that you can legally tell me, so stop there.” The young man clamped his jaw shut so forcefully Reborn could hear his teeth clack together.

“Um… Sawada also left a message for you.” He muttered, shuffling some papers around in his hands. “Ah – here.” He handed Reborn a small slip of paper and backed out of the room – which he really shouldn’t, since Reborn didn’t work here and shouldn’t be left alone in the boss’s office. Novice.

_‘Hey Reborn-san. I’m so sorry I’m not there to see you off, this meeting is really important, and I'm not allowed to miss it. Think we could grab that coffee if you ever come back to Japan? - Tsuna.’_

Reborn nodded to himself, his day ruined, but his chances with Tsuna weren’t (not really… hopefully). He got up from Tsuna’s couch, smoothed out microscopic wrinkles on his suit and walked out without a word.

-

6 weeks later, Reborn may or may not be stalking his angel when he came back to Japan with one large suitcase for his attire, the suit he was wearing and the single thought that he would walk right into Tsuna’s office and ask the brunette out. Did he have a permanent place to stay? No, but he had enough money to stay at a hotel for a few years (not to brag, but he made a lot digging people out of their own financial graves). Did he have a job to go to here in Japan? Well… if Tsuna said yes to a date, then probably. Maybe… there might be some inter-corporate rules about dating that he might have to work around, but Reborn was nothing if he couldn’t adapt.

**So** imagine his surprise as he walked off of the street and into the building only to see his angel pressing his lips against some silver-haired home-wrecker’s. Wasn’t Japan super conservative about PDA – especially with gay couples?

A tall black-haired man cleared his throat behind them and gave a tight smile, muttered something to them and the silver-haired man pulled his small angel close as the other man walked by. Reborn hadn’t stopped walking despite his sudden urge to kill this stranger whose hands were all over someone that clearly wasn’t his-

Only, Tsuna wasn’t Reborn’s anything, so why should he get defensive? He was gone for 6 weeks, Tsuna probably started dating him then. Tsuna had his back to Reborn, and the accountant was close enough to hear their conversation as he contemplated his own feelings of possessive obsession.

“Are you sure about this, Sawada-san? I really don’t think Yamamoto would be that jealous over a little kiss. I mean, I know he knows we slept together, but…”

This actually froze Reborn where he stood. They what. Were they trying to make another man jealous? Was this a pretend thing? Was this **bastard** _using_ his angel for his own personal gain?

“Yeah, I’m sure. Like I said, we’ve known each other for years – I know how to get under his skin. And I know how to get you back into his pants!” Tsuna said the last sentence in a staged whisper, before stepping back to giggle at the man’s sputter. Tsuna turned halfway to Reborn, eyes closed and a smile that brought light back to Reborn’s desolate world. Then the most adorable thing happened, and Reborn could swear all his sins were washed clean by the innocence of this man.

Tsuna snorted.

His giggling had grown, just a little bit, slowly becoming a true laugh with the other man’s denial, and he laughed on an inhale, causing the most adorable snort Reborn had ever heard. There was a pause between the men that Reborn wasn’t truly a part of, considering they still hadn’t noticed him there, before they both broke down laughing. Tsuna’s face all but exploded red, his hands coming up to hide his face even as he turned into the stranger’s chest.

“Oh geeze, that was not meant to happen!”

“But that was cute!” The stranger insisted as he laughed, pulling Tsuna into his arms further.

“Nooooo…” Tsuna whined as he continued to laugh. The stranger seemed to notice Reborn then, his humour slowly draining as weary confusion took its place.

“Can I help you?” The man groused at Reborn. Before the accountant could respond, however, Tsuna turned around in his arms and his face lit up in the most adorable look of recognition Reborn had ever seen directed at him – it was truly so endearing to have that look aimed his way, almost like a puppy.

“Reborn-san! You came back!” Tsuna stepped out of the stranger’s arms as he came a bit closer. “What are you doing here? Not that I’m not happy to see you. Because I am, I’m just… curious?”

Reborn tried his most winning smile, but he felt it might have fallen a little flat, seeing as this stranger was walking a step closer to Tsuna, as if to protect him. “I’m actually here to ask you something – may I speak to you in privet?”

“Privet? What for?” The stranger asked suspiciously, as if he didn’t want to leave Tsuna alone with Reborn. Tsuna smiled an award-winning grin as he walked out of the stranger’s reach.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Gokudera-san. 9 am sharp.” He said pointedly as he slid up to Reborn and laid a gentle hand on the accountant’s arm. “Come to my office, Reborn-san. We can speak there.” Reborn completely ignored the way his heart skipped a beat when Tsuna touched his arm (and it was just a small touch to his elbow, for fucks sake! Was he really so touch-starved?) and glided into the elevator, heading to Tsuna’s office.

-

He got the job.

Of course, he got the job – Reborn wasn’t just some random person off the street, he was a world-class accountant. Any boss would be over the moon to have him even glance at their paperwork and accounts. What he didn’t get was a chance to ask the brunette out.

They sat on the comfy couches, Tsuna asked why he was back, reiterated that he ‘was happy to see him again, just curious!’ and Reborn replied that he had fallen in love (paused for a dramatic moment to look into Tsuna’s eyes _pointedly_ ) with Japan and wanted to work more permanently within the country – and what better place to start that than where his talents were known?

“Well,” Was Tsuna blushing a little? Reborn really hoped he had gotten his not-at-all subtle hint across. “Despite my best efforts, I’ve not yet been able to hire an accountant. I have been doing my best at keeping the accounts myself, but…”

He tilted his head to the far side, gave a sheepish and lopsided grin as he scratched his cheek. Reborn responded with a cordial chuckle and prompted him to continue. Tsuna sobered a bit, his smile becoming more professional while remaining sheepish.

“While I would love to offer you the position since we really do need a permanent accountant on staff, I can’t reasonably pay you at the level you were contracted for, for the month you were here.”

Reborn raised his hand with a smile. “Let me stop you there. I’m here because I want to be – even at a lower pay I’ll be fine financially for a while. I’m happy with what you can give me.”

Tsuna’s face had been brightening the whole time, and by the time Reborn finished, his eyes were practically sparkling. It was adorable.

“I – yes. Yes, we can do that! Welcome, Reborn-san! How does the starting rate of Haruto-san’s end pay sound?” Haruto-san being the old man they ‘retired’ a few months ago.

“Sounds like a good starting place.” Reborn laughed out. There was a moment of peaceful silence where Reborn gathered up as much courage as he could to ask the man out on a proper date when he was interrupted but Tsuna’s phone going off.

“Ah, excuse me.” Tsuna said as he reached into his back pocket. He read the text and smiled – and Reborn was reminded of the man from earlier.

“So, tell me about your boyfriend. What’s his name?” He was expecting a blush, at least. Maybe some flustered mumbles. Hell, maybe even a bad attempt at hiding his apparent, and very blatantly open, relationship. He really just… didn’t expect Tsuna to be so blatant about it.

“Boyfriend…? Oh, Gokudera-san. Yeah, no. We’re using each other to get back at a friend of mine – well, I’m getting back at him for calling me names I’d rather not remember, Gokudera-san is using me to get back into my friend’s pants. I will admit Gokudera-san is damn good in bed – but we’ve already established that we’re better off just being friends. It’s just how my love life will always be, I guess. Like a condom, use and throw away, right?” Tsuna said the majority of this monologue without looking up from his phone and finished with a laugh and a dazzling look up at Reborn.

“… what?” Was about all Reborn could get from his lips. Did his angel really just say that about himself and _mean_ it?!

“I’ll admit that I actually have a crush on Gokudera-san – though calling it a crush at my age is a little embarrassing.” Tsuna continued as if he hadn’t heard Reborn. Hell, he even looked back down at his phone to answer his text. “But… well, you know how it is. One night and he knew I wasn’t the one for him. Pretty sure I’m not the ‘one’ for anybody, haha. I think I was actually his way of trying to forget Takeshi…” he trailed off as he stood, and finally looked back up at Reborn.

“Sorry, I have to call my Grandpa back. Come back tomorrow at 9, we’ll talk with HR about pay and everything!” Tsuna smiled at Reborn, another dazzling grin over his shoulder as he walked away.

So, no, Reborn didn’t get the chance to ask Tsuna out – what he did get, however, was a new goal to his being here. He sat there for maybe close to 5 minutes, just sitting there, staring at the place Tsuna had been sitting, coming to the realization that, yeah, his angel really did feel that way about himself. So much so that the brunette probably didn’t even realize Reborn had been attempting to flirt with him the whole time.

“I love you, Sawada Tsunayoshi.” He blurted out loud. “And I will make you understand that I love you. Even if I have to ruin your plans with your… friends to do it.”

-

Hayato’s hands were shaking as he stood in front of his boss’s office, preparing to end this weird thing he had with the man to get Yamamoto back. It was lunch break, something he had set aside to have specifically with Sawada to get on Yamamoto’s nerves, just to get the man to look at him – and now that he truly thought about it, wasn’t that just the pettiest thing that he, as an adult, could do to someone?

_“You will end this sham you have going with Tsuna, or I swear I will break every bone in your body.”_

A shiver wracked Hayato’s whole body at the memory of the black-haired man from an hour ago. Eyes blacker than death itself, voice as deep as the pits of Hell, and the promise of a very violent end if Hayato didn’t stop pretending to date Sawada. According to this dangerous stranger, this ploy was hurting Sawada so much more than the smaller man let on and as such, it needed to end. And Hayato could understand that – actually, looking back on it, Hayato was an asshole to even think he should use his own boss like this to get back with someone else.

Worse, he did this knowing the other man’s feelings about him. So Hayato straightened his tie, took a deep breath in and, feeling the gaze on his back from the man that promised death, walked into Sawada’s office to end it.

Now, if only he had closed the door the whole way… 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I don't know when exactly I'll be finished the next chapter, but it won't be long - hopefully no more than a month or so. Love you!


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